A Rare Drachm from 4th Century Kos

Today's coin comes with several interesting connections:

• Herakles shipwreaked on Kos and the imagery of this coin

• Herakles' Second Labor (The Hydra) and the imagery on the reverse

• A seventh wonder of the world - the tomb of Maussolus built during the time of this coin.

Herakles

Detail from Hercule et l'Hydre de Lerne, 1876, oil on canvas, Gustave Moreau( 1826–1898), Public domain, via Art Institute Chicago

According to legend, Herkles was shipwrecked on Kos after the Trojan War. The "bearded" mature Herkles on this coin is style is distinct from the youthful Herakles that Alexander the Great would popularize a few decades later. Hera tricked Zeus and raised a violent storm to blow Herakles off course while he was sailing home from Troy. Herakles conquered the island, and kills the king, Eurypylus (a son of Poseidon).

The Crab

The civic badge of Kos, references Herakles' 2nd Labor the myth of the Hydra.

Athena, Heracles attacked by the crab and the Lenaean Hydra. White-ground Attic lekythos, ca. 500–475, Diosphos Painter. Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities in the Louvre, Sully, first floor, room 39, case 14. BC.

"Cancer (The Crab): it is held that this was placed among the stars by Hera because it alone, when all the others were helping Heracles when he was killing the Hydra, leaped out of the lake and bit him in the foot, as Panyassis says in the Heraclea; and Heracles in anger is held to have crushed it with his foot."
- Panyassis, Heraclea, Fragment 8

The Magistrate

Archidamos was not a king, but a wealthy citizen performing a public duty (liturgy). He paid for the silver and minting costs himself. The name "Archidamos" appears in Koan inscriptions (often in lists of wealthy donors or priests) for generations, suggesting he belonged to one of the island's leading aristocratic families.

The Hekatomnids and the Double Axe (Labrys)

Satraps of Caria, Pixodaros, circa 341/0-336/5 BCE, AR Didrachm (18.5mm, 6.98 g, 1h), Halikarnassos mint Obv: Laureate head of Apollo facing slightly right, drapery around neck Rev: Zeus Labraundos standing right Ref: Konuk, Identities 30; HN Online 241. Hekatomnid satrap, Pixodaros, took control of Caria from his sister, Ada who was later restored as satrap by Alexander the Great circa 334.

The labrys was originally the weapon of the Amazon queen Hippolyta, Herakles slew Hippolyta and took her axe as a spoil of war, Herkles later gave the axe to Queen Omphale of Lydia during his time in servitude to her. A Carian leader from Mylasa (the Hekatomnids' home city) named Arselis later defeated a Lydian king, seized the axe, and brought it back to Caria. He dedicated it to the statue of Zeus at Labraunda. The axe of Zeus Labraundos became the symbol of the Hekatomnid dynasty.

AI Generated Image of a Labrys

The Hekatomnids were known for sibling marriage and co-rule (e.g. Maussollos and Artemisia, Idrieus and Ada). In mainland Greece, women rarely held political power. The Herakles/Omphale myth provided a prestigious precedent for a dominant female ruler holding the attributes of male power (the club/lion skin).

The Coin

Islands off Caria, Kos. Circa 355-345 BC. Drachm (Silver, 16 mm, 3.59 g, 6 h), Archidamos, magistrate.

Obv: Head of bearded Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress.

Rev: KΩΙΟΝ / APXIΔΑΜΟΣ Crab with club below; all within pelleted square within shallow incuse square.

Ref: HGC 6, 1312. HN online 1818. SNG Delepierre 2727. Very rare. Lightly toned and with a very attractive head of Herakles.

Notes: Minor flan fault on the obverse, otherwise, good very fine. ex Savoca Silver Auction 297 Lot 74 30-Nov-2025, ex Leu Web Auction 32 Lot 612 07-Dec-2024 from a Swiss collection, formed before 2005.

Later Koan coins (from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC) eventually switch to the standard spelling ΚΩΙΩΝ. The use of ΚΩΙΟΝ helps date this coin to the earlier Hekatomnid period (c. 350s–340s BC).

The Irony

At the time this coin was minted sometime between the rule of Hekatomnid satrap Maussolos and the arrival of Alexander the Great in 335. Caria was part of the Achaemenid Empire, and ruled by the Hekatomnids, satraps of Carian descent, loyal to the Persian king Artaxerxes II. The country appears to have been able to retain some of its independence acting almost as independent kings.

The Hekatomnids associated themselves with Herakles (conquerer of Kos) and there is a layer of irony on the reverse of the coin (perhaps unintentional) in the juxtaposition of the Club (the weapon of the Herakles ) alongside the Crab (the hero's enemy).

The Mausoleum

Mausolaeum (The Tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus), by Philip Galle, after Maerten van Heemskerck, 1572. Source: The National Gallery of Art, London

Maussolus died in 353 and was succeeded by his sister (and wife) Artemisia, who was able to retain independence for Caria. She is best known for building a sepulchral monument for her dead husband, the Mausoleum, which was considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Mausōleion (Μαυσωλεῖον), meaning "building dedicated to Maussollos", over time the noun eventually lost its specific capitalization and became the generic term for any above-ground monumental tomb.

References:

Collection Jean et Marie Delepierre

Historia Numorum

• Ashton, Richard, and Koray Konuk. “The Pixodarus Hoard (CH 9.421).” In A. Meadows / U. Wartenberg (Ed.), Coin Hoards, Volume IX, Greek Hoards (London, 2002), Pp. 159-243; Pl. 21-41.

  Note: Hoard evidence for dating this coin: "The chronology now established by the Hecatomnus and Pixodarus hoards for the fourth century issues of Cos suggests that the Heracles/crab series began in the 390s and continued, probably with gaps in production, until around the mid 340s."

• Hoover, Oliver D. Handbook of Coins of the Islands: Adriatic, Ionian, Thracian, Aegean, and Carpathian Seas (Excluding Crete and Cyprus), Sixth to First Centuries BC. The Handbook of Greek Coinage Series, Volume 6. Lancaster, PA: Classical Numismatic Group, 2010.

• Ingvaldsen, Håkon. COS: Coinage and Society. The Chronology and Function of a City-State Coinage in the Classical and Hellenistic Period, c. 390–c. 170 BC. PhD dissertation, University of Oslo, 2002.

  Note: This is the seminal work on the political economy of the mint, explaining the "Archidamos" magistrate period in depth. He found that the dies used by Archidamos were physically linked (shared obverse dies) to other magistrates like Nestoridas and Alkimachos.

• Konuk, Koray. "The Coinage of the Hekatomnids of Caria." PhD dissertation, University of Oxford, 1998.

  Note: The authoritative work on the Satraps (Mausolus and Artemisia) who controlled Kos when this coin was struck.

• Nicolet-Pierre, Hélène, and Georges Le Rider. "Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum: France 1. Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Médailles. Collection Jean et Marie Delepierre." Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1983.

  Note: This volume contains the specific plate coin (No. 2727) referenced.

• Stefanaki, Vasiliki E. "Nomismata: Nomismatikē Aigaiou: Kōs I" [Coins: Numismatics of the Aegean: Kos I]. Athens: Ministry of Culture and Tourism / Numismatic Museum, 2012.

  Note: The authority on the mint of Kos, containing the die studies that establish the sequence of issues.

Articles and Historical Context

• Konuk, Koray. "The 4th Century BC 'Ionian Renaissance' and Karian Identity." In Coinage and Identities under the Hekatomnids", edited by Olivier Henry, 101–121. Istanbul: Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes-Georges Dumézil, 2013.

  Note: Essential for understanding the cultural "inside joke" of the Herakles imagery vs. Persian rule.

• Stefanaki, Vasiliki E. "On the Dating of Two Early 2nd Century Coin Issues from Kos and the IGCH 1320 Hoard." Opuscula 6 (2013): 157–173.

  Note: Useful for understanding the methodology of dating Koan magistrates.

Databases and Auction Records

• Konuk, Koray, ed. Historia Numorum Online: Caria. Bordeaux: Institut Ausonius. Accessed December 8, 2025. type ID 1818.

• Savoca Numismatik. Lot 74: Islands off Caria, Kos. Drachm. Silver Auction 297. November 30, 2025.